Month: August 2011

Hurricane Irene is sending a lot of rain and wind here now, so we decided to have a cheese course.  We tried making buttermilk oat crackers from the recipe in this month’s Culture magazine, but they turned out more like cookies. (They taste good with tea. Not too sweet; not too salty).

Camembert from Delice de France, which was good, but I’m not sure if it was from France or not.

Caciotta Toscana, from the Italian deli in Cleveland Park, a nice cow and sheep cheese from Italy.  Caciotta apparently means farmhouse in Italian.

Gorgonzola, also from the Italian deli, was very creamy.

After the earthquake in northern VA, we all had adventures getting home from work, what with all of the issues.  I took the subway, which was _very_ crowded, but somewhat on time.  We rendezvous’ed at Angela’s, and went out for a local happy hour.

From the Dino’s menu:

Guffanti Erborinato { sharp ~ sheep } Francia

BEWARE OF THIS CHEESE! Served with honey to tame its fire – Cave aged cheese that blues naturally from the molds in the cave for a wild effect.  What roquefort would taste like if it could!

It was very good, but we’re not sure why we should beware of it.

Claudia arranged for the TBFM group to go to Central for lunch the other day.  I had the lanb burger, which was very good.  I had cheese for dessert.  All of them were from France.

Epoisse, a washed rind (that is, stinky) unpasteurized cow’s milk cheese.

Mimolette, the orange cheese, also from France.  Steve Jenkins says it is bland.

Blue D’auvergne, an AOC cow’s milk cheese.  Very smooth and very good.

We went to N.C. for the trip to Tweetsie (the steam train amusement park in the N.C. mountains) to see Riders in the Sky (America’s favorite cowboy band).  We took cheese from the farmer’s market by the Navy Memorial (near where I work on Pennsylvania Ave) and from the Whole Foods in Tenleytown.

Hudson Valley Camembert, a very nice soft sheep’s milk cheese from Old Chatham Sheepherding Company in New York.  This one is square, the Nancy’s one is round.

Clear Spring Creamery farmstead cheddar, a very nice cheddar from Virginia cows.  I got this at the farmer’s market, just because it was there.

Fulvi Crotonese, a very nice aged sheep cheese from Italy.  Hard, like Parmigiano-Reggiano, but different.

BellaVitano black pepper, from the Sartori family of Wisconsin, made from cow’s milk.  Yes, it was cheese with stuff in it, but we liked it anyway.

Buttermilk Blue, from Roth Kase of Wisconsin.  A very nice blue, which we both like.  We’ve had this before.